The song and its music video went viral in August 2012 and have influenced popular culture worldwide. In the United States, "Gangnam Style" peaked at number two on Billboard Hot 100. By the end of 2012, "Gangnam Style" had topped the music charts of more than 30 countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Psy's dance in the music video itself became a cultural phenomenon.
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In September 2012, "Gangnam Style" was recognized by Guinness World Records as the first YouTube video to hit 1 billion views. It subsequently won Best Video at the MTV Europe Music Awards held that year. It became a source of parodies and reaction videos by many different individuals, groups, and organizations. On December 21, 2012, "Gangnam Style" became the first YouTube video to reach 1 billion views.[7] As of July 15, 2022, the song's music video has more than 4.48 billion views,[8] and was the most viewed video on YouTube from November 24, 2012, when it surpassed the music video for "Baby" by Justin Bieber featuring Ludacris,[9] to July 10, 2017, when it was itself surpassed by the music video for "See You Again" by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth.[10]
"Gangnam Style" is a South Korean neologism that refers to a lifestyle associated with the Gangnam District[13] of Seoul,[14] where people are trendy, hip, and exude a certain supposed class. The term was listed in Time's weekly vocabulary list as a manner associated with lavish lifestyles in Seoul's Gangnam district.[15] Psy likened the Gangnam District to Beverly Hills, California, and said in an interview that he intended in a twisted sense of humor by claiming himself to be "Gangnam Style" when everything about the song, dance, looks, and the music video is far from being such a high class:[16]
Korean popular music (K-pop), considered by some to be the most important aspect of the Korean wave,[35] is a music genre that relies on cultural technology to adapt to the tastes of foreign audiences and has now grown into a popular subculture among teenagers and young adults in many places around the world.[36] Although it has spread to the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and parts of South America,[37] its reception in the Western world was initially lukewarm.[38] However, booming social media networks such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter made it easier for K-pop musicians to reach a wider audience in the West, and the song and video soon became a global phenomenon.[39]
Hallie Sekoff of The Huffington Post quoted from the video's official YouTube video description that the song is characterized by its "strongly addictive beats," and wrote that this is not too far-fetched, considering "how obsessed we've found ourselves."[40] London's mayor Boris Johnson considered the song to be the greatest cultural masterpiece of 2012.[41]
Despite its popularity, a few music critics including Robert Copsey from Digital Spy criticized the song for being monotonous. Cospey wrote that "you could slap an LMFAO tag on the cover and few would know the difference",[42] and Paul Lester of The Guardian similarly labeled it as "generic ravey Euro dance with guitars." Lester described the song as "Pump Up the Jam meets the Macarena with a dash of Cotton Eye Joe,"[43] while Robert Myers of The Village Voice dismissed "Gangnam Style" as an "inspired piece of silliness."[44]
Cha Woo-jin, a South Korean music critic, told The Chosun Ilbo that "Gangnam Style"'s sophisticated rendering and arrangement has made it very appealing to the general public.[45] Choe Kwang-shik, the South Korean Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, told reporters that "Gangnam Style" had played an important role in introducing the Korean culture, language, and lifestyle to the rest of the world.[46] However, some have criticized the song for failing to accurately represent South Korean culture. Oh Young-Jin, managing editor of The Korea Times, wrote that the dance has more to do with Americans than Koreans.[47]
In Japan, the song was met with considerable criticism. When "Gangnam Style" first appeared in Japanese TV shows in July, the reaction from viewers was negative. As a result, Psy's Japanese record label YGEX canceled a previously planned Japanese-language re-release of "Gangnam Style."[48] According to The Dong-a Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper, the song's lukewarm reception in Japan could have been caused by a diplomatic conflict between the two countries,[49] and the newspaper accused the Japanese media of keeping its people "in the dark."[49] However, Jun Takaku of the Japanese daily newspaper Asahi Shimbun explained that "Gangnam Style" had caused "barely a ripple in Japan" because Psy does not conform to the image of other "traditionally polished" K-pop acts popular in Japan such as Girls' Generation and TVXQ.[50] Erica Ho from Time magazine similarly noted that, despite the K-pop musical genre being very popular in Japan, the country seemed to be "immune to PSY Mania", and she advised her readers who dislike the song to "pack your bags for Japan."[51]
Immediately after its release, "Gangnam Style" was mentioned by various English-language websites providing coverage of Korean pop culture for international fans, including Allkpop[52] and Soompi.[53] Simon and Martina Stawski, a Canadian couple living in Seoul who were among the first to parody "Gangnam Style" in late July, wrote that the song has the potential to become "one of the biggest songs of the year."[54] However, during an interview with Al Jazeera a few weeks later, Martina Stawski claimed that the worldwide popularity of "Gangnam Style" has been viewed negatively by some K-pop fans, because "they [the fans] didn't want K-pop being liked by other people who don't understand K-Pop."[55][56]
The chorus ends and he is seen in a parking garage, where Psy is approached by a man (Yoo Jae-suk) in a yellow suit who steps out of a red Mercedes-Benz SLK 200; they have a dance duel. Psy then appears in an elevator underneath a man (Noh Hong-Chul) who is straddling him and thrusting his pelvis. The man in the yellow suit then gets in his car and leaves. The camera pans and it shows Psy in the subway station, where he boards the train and notices Hyuna (who would have her own version of the song) dancing. At one of the train stops, he approaches the girl in slow motion, and she approaches him. They start to embrace. He then tells the girl "Oppa Gangnam Style," and they horse dance along with some other dancers at the train stop, commencing the second chorus. He also surfaces from a spa hot tub.[74] In the Rolling Stone interview, Psy says he copied the spa surfacing scene from Lady Gaga's video ("Poker Face").[75]
The music video for the song has gone viral and is an Internet meme.[115] Although Psy attributed the song's popularity to YouTube and his fans while at the same time insisted that he is not responsible for the song's success,[116] the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism recognized the singer for "increasing the world's interest in Korea" and announced its decision to award Psy with a 4th Class Order of Cultural Merit.[117]
As the song's popularity continued to rise, it caused the share price of the song's music label YG Entertainment to gain as much as 50% on the Korea Exchange. DI Corporation, whose executive chairman Park Won-ho is Psy's father, saw its share price increase by 568.8% within a few months of the song's release despite making a year-over-year loss.[119][120] Soon, "Gangnam Style" began to attract the attention of several business and political leaders, including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who recognized the song as a "force for world peace."[11] During his meeting with Psy at the United Nations Headquarters, he commented, "We have tough negotiations in the United Nations. In such a case I was also thinking of playing Gangnam Style-dance so that everybody would stop and dance. Maybe you can bring UN style."[121][122]
The song has been mentioned in tweets by the United Nations,[132] the United Nations Children's Fund,[133] and the American space agency NASA;[134] by a reporter during a U.S. State Department briefing;[135] and referenced by the president of the International Criminal Court Song Sang-Hyun during his speech in front of the UN Security Council.[136][137][138] On October 9, the mayor of London Boris Johnson held a speech at the 2012 Conservative Party Conference where he told the audience that he and the British Prime Minister David Cameron have danced "Gangnam Style."[139] During a Google Earnings call, Larry Page, the CEO and co-founder of Google, hailed the song as a glimpse of the future of worldwide distribution through YouTube.[140]
In December 2012, the Department of Health in the Philippines launched a "Gangnam Style" dance campaign against the use of firecrackers to celebrate the New Year.[162] Janine Tugonon, 2012 Miss Universe first runner-up, joined and danced on one of their campaign at Pandacan, Manila.[163] According to the department's assistant secretary, Dr. Eric Tayag, the popularity of the song will attract people especially children to use safer means of celebration such as dancing "Gangnam Style."[162] In contrast, the Philippine National Police was confirming intelligence reports about a firecracker named "Gangnam bomb," which supposedly produced by illegal firecracker makers in Bocaue, Bulacan and apparently riding on the popularity of the song.[164] According to Chief Superintendent Raul Petrasanta, director of the Firearms and Explosives Office of the Philippine National Police, he did not know what the possibly dangerous[165] "Gangnam bomb" looks like.[164]
Muhammad Rahim al Afghani, a close associate of Osama bin Laden currently held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, had also used the song to demonstrate his ability to gain access to popular cultural trends despite being confined within a top secret prison. In a letter to his lawyer, Muhammad wrote, "I like this new song Gangnam Style. I want to do the dance for you but cannot because of my shackles."[166] 2ff7e9595c
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